94 Matthew Luczy - Robert Parkers The Wine Advocate

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon China Blue leads with a polished, blue-fruited nose flanked with subtle tinges of tobacco, woody accents and the welcome herbal lift that runs through this roster. The palate is beautiful and decadent while remaining alluring and light on its feet, concluding with a graceful, harmonious and tense finish that gently but persistently swells in dimension with time in the glass. It's a fantastic and unique showing of Happy Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon.

93 Antonio Galloni - Vinous

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon China Blue Vineyard is polished and sensual from the get-go. Crushed flowers and bright red-toned fruit immediately confer freshness and a level of high-toned notes not especially typical of Happy Canyon Cabernets. This is an especially savory and pungent Cabernet. Soft tannins make it a delight to taste, even in its youth.

91 Joe Czerwinski - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Named for the tractor acquired with the original property in 1973, Shafer's 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon TD-9 blends fruit from the estate with purchased fruit to provide an entry-level Cabernet Sauvignon. A blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot, 4% Malbec and 3% Petit Verdot, aged in 100% new French oak, it does offer plenty of vanilla and spice shadings to balance the cherry fruit. Full-bodied and velvety-textured, it offers plenty of pleasure for what amounts to a fair price within the Napa scheme of things. With more than 10,000 cases produced, it should be widely available at steakhouses and retail.

90 Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

The 2022 TD-9 checks in as 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot, 4% Malbec, and the rest Petit Verdot. It has a juicy, lively, medium to full-bodied style to go with pretty red and black fruits, some spicy wood and floral notes, fine tannins, and a great finish.

90 Antonio Galloni - Vinous

The 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon TD-9 is a pretty wine. Crushed flowers, sweet red berry fruit and sweet spice tones are nicely lifted. This is an especially delicate, aromatic Cabernet Sauvignon that shows the lighter structure of the year.

97 Decanter

Shimmering notes of orange peel and lemon juice illuminate over the succulent muscovado sweetness, whilst the generous lime acidity cleans the palate in preparation for the next flood of flavours: caramel and dried fig. Never-ending and remarkable.

93 Mark Squires - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

"The 1985 Colheita Tawny Port Dalva comes in with 129 grams per liter of residual sugar. This adds a layer or two of depth to the 1994 Colheita reviewed. It is pretty fine. The texture is richer, a bit unctuous, and the finish lingers beautifully. Dribbling waves of caramel and a hint of molasses over the palate, this quickly becomes irresistible. It is nicely balanced, too, easy to drink."

91 Yohan Castaing - Robert Parker's the Wine Advocate

A blend of 50% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay and 15% Meunier, the 2018 Extra-Brut displays a bright, perfumed bouquet with aromas of blanched almond, fresh bread, spring flower, menthol and licorice. Medium to full-bodied, elegant and seamless, it’s vinous with bright acids and a lingering, saline finish. Il should age well over the next five to eight years.

94 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

A spicy and fresh malbec with some dark walnuts, crushed stones and a hint of sweet spices to the blue fruit and exotically fresh herbs. Juicy and bright on the palate with mealy, dusty tannins and an elegant but lengthy finish. Drink or hold.

93 Luis Gutierrez - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The eponymous 2023 Branco, a 50/50 blend of Arinto and Roupeiro from dry-farmed vines planted in 2008 on granite soils, finished fermenting in 2,000-liter Austrian foudres, where it matured for 12 months with the lees. It comes in with a serious and elegant profile, good ripeness, 13% alcohol and very good freshness. It's balanced, fresh, very clean, elegant and tasty. It should develop nicely in bottle. 5,500 bottles produced. It was bottled in October 2024.

95+ Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

"From the lowest yields since 2004, the 2015 El Desafio de Jonata smells like a barrel sample with its jammy blackberry, blueberry, cassis, crushed rock and lead pencil aromas and flavors. Rich, mouthfilling, plush and textured, yet with loads of underlying tannin, it's going to be another terrific vintage for this cuvée, yet it needs to be forgotten for 5-7 years. The blend is 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% each of Merlot and Petit Verdot (there’s no Cabernet Franc) aged 20 months in 80% new barrels."

93 Joaquín Hidalgo - Vinous Media

The 2023 Clio is composed of 70% Monastrell and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon from Jumilla. It was aged for 23 months in French and American oak barrels. Recently bottled, the oak is at the forefront but will integrate. The wine opens with plum, soft herbal notes and blackberry. Intense with fruit complexity, the palate is creamy, flavorful and delicate in tannins, finishing with a touch of oak that will meld with time.

93 Jeb Dunnuck - jebdunnuck.com

"The first vintage made at the new facility, the 2020 Echo De Lynch-Bages checks in as 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot that was raised all in once-used barrels. It’s a big, mouth-filling, serious second wine revealing classic Pauillac lead pencil and tobacco notes., plenty of ripe black fruits, velvety tannins, and a great finish. One of the more opulent, expansive wines in the vintage, it has loads to love as well as more than a hint of the style of the Grand Vin."

91 Wine Spectator

This has a nice generous feel, with cassis and damson plum unfurling easily, backed by light floral and iron notes through the fresh finish. Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink now through 2033. 10,416 cases made.

87 Tastings.com (Beverage Testing Institute)

Silvery straw color. Aromas and flavors of tapioca, peach jam, cashew brittle, and papaya and paw paw with a round, bright, fruity medium-to-full body and a sleek, medium-long finish manifesting notes of apple custard tart, candied yams, pepper, and blue raspberry finish. A juicy, fruity, easy-drinking junmai with pleasing warmth.

93 Wine Enthusiast

Aromas of Golden Delicious apples and peaches explode from the glass, followed by a slightly sweet and buttery note that unleashes an intense craving for lemon shortbread cookies. The wine feels crisp and fresh in the mouth, with flavors like lemon shaved ice, cinnamon and a hint of coconut oil. Great acidity.

98 Decanter

Beautiful mid-deep amber/tawny colour. Complex aromas of nuts, figs and apricots. Silky smooth and very refined, extending to suave complexity. Lithe and delicate, long, fine and wonderfully poised – a near-perfect combination of the freshness of youth melded with the complexity of age.- Richard Mayson

96 Bob Campbell MW - Bob Campbell

This wine makes my heart beat faster. It is delicate yet powerful, ethereal but wonderfully harmonious. I love its beautifully nuanced array of flavours that are displayed like the colours on a peacock’s tail and linger long after the wine has been swallowed. I have a cast-iron rule that prevents me from swallowing wine samples during tastings. I managed to stick to my guns. It wasn’t easy.

95 Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier - CamDouglasMS.com

A delicious wine with purity of fruit, the signature of site and vintage are clear with a bouquet of freshness, power and varietal prowess. Dark cherry and savoury dried herbs, hat and sandy clay soil complexities, violet and wild forest flowers the spice. Dry, complex and textured with a gentle tautness with an abundance of polished tannins and backbone of acidity. Flavours of dried raspberry, dark berries, plum and dark cherry are released throughout the palate and as the wine opens out in glass delivers energy, purity and freshness. Delicious and lengthy with best drinking from late 2026 through 2035+.

95 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

Pure aromas of strawberries, orange peel, sandalwood and potpourri. It’s medium-bodied with firm yet fine tannins and a crisp and delicious finish. So attractive now, with just the right amount of tension at the end. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

92 Erin Larkin - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2024 Bannockburn Pinot Noir is dark fruited and plush, with nutmeg biscuit and cranberry, blood plum and mulberry. The wine is exotic and peppered with baking spices—one assumes this is via the oak rather than the fruit. 2024 was a superb vintage in Central Otago, and the wines that I have seen so far echo this. It seems this wine just needs a little more time—or a decant—in order to show its best. It's very impressive regardless. 13.8% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

96 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

The graphite aroma is a sign of the wine's youth, but there are also stacks of forest berries and baking spices filling the full-bodied palate. Very good freshness for a Chateauneuf of this imposing stature. The ample fine tannins carry the very long, velvety finish. Delicious to drink now, but this should develop beautifully with more bottle age. A cuvee of 90% grenache from 100-year-old vines with 5% syrah and 5% mourvedre. Drink or hold.